


By the Lake

by lostinlace



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Healing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-02
Updated: 2015-03-02
Packaged: 2018-03-16 01:50:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3469955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostinlace/pseuds/lostinlace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The scene by the lake which is inspired by the bts pictures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	By the Lake

To say it was cold would be cruel and inaccurate. It was mind numbingly freezing. The winds blowing off the lake made the chill even more bitter, but that was the only complaint Barry had at the moment. Iris's mere close proximity emanated warmth, and at the moment irritation, heartbreak, betrayal, and anger, but he was more than willing to take it in order to continue to be here alone with her. 

Barry figured he can take this side of Iris too, after all he wanted her, all of her. Thats why he finally told her he was the Flash. 

He saw her eyed narrow, not widen, and he knew it wasn't going to be a joyous moment. 

"Am I the last to know," she said after a long eerie and awkward moment of silence. "Did you, Star, and my dad have a great time proving that you think I'm an idiot. No wonder why my dad practically laughed at me being a journalist. You must have been laughing it up right beside him as usual." 

Yep, that hurt. "No! Iris, that's not-" The tilt of her head and the roll of her eyes cut him off. 

"Dad flat out told me I was hallucinating when I told him about you. He treated me like I told him I had monsters under my bad like a god damn child! You-you mocked me as well!" She backed away from him slowly as each and everyone of his lies dawned on her. He closed the distance between them again until she held out her hands silently to tell him to stop. "You had the audacity to come into my job, and get an attitude with me for being honest with Linda when you have been...telling me that there were no other girls." 

Barry was at a loss. He had lost track of the inconsistencies of his lies and their consequences. "Linda broke up with me," it was lame, but at least it was honest.

"I know, she told me." 

Barry's brow furrowed just a bit. He knew that Linda and Iris were work friends, but he didn't know they still confided things to each other especially after that disastrous double date. Linda had watched Barry unable to take his eyes off of Iris during the three games of bowling, 4 beers, 2 white russians, Barry's bottle of water, 3 bathroom trips for the ladies, and Barry's deep fried try-all appetizer, burger, fries, more fries, chicken fingers, and banana split. As the date went on, Linda managed to realize that she wasn't a rebound chick, she was a seat filler. That wasn't what she had signed up for. Surprisingly enough, she wasn't that mad about it. She had told Barry that the last thing she wanted was baggage. Thats why she was trolling semi-seedy bars. Linda was definitely the kind of woman who knew what she wanted and what she didn't. There was a story there, but Linda had left Barry with a hug before elaborating. 

That was that. Iris and Linda now being thick as thieves was just par for the course for the mess he created.  
"You know," Iris said with a humorless laugh, "if you told me first about breaking up I wouldn't have believed you because of all the lies." 

Barry saw the fight she had been waging against angry quiet tears, and he just witnessed her lose that fight. He dropped the duffel bag, and moved his hands to cup both sides of her face. He knew his hands were large and he was stronger now. Barry wanted to speed up so he could feel bare skin longer. Her hair graced past fingers and he savored its feel, then so did a tear. That gave him the momentum he needed to be as forthright as possible. He inhaled to begin his apology, but once again he was cut off. 

"Dont tell me you're sorry. It would be one thing if you lied once and apologized, not for doing it daily." Barry could hear the pleading nature in her voice. The anger had dissipated a bit. He kept his gentle hold on her face and slowly let his thumb draw half moons on her cheek. The small act of affection seemed to be calming. He placed an equally gentle and soft kiss on her forehead. 

"I wanted to tell you. I wanted to share everything with you when it happened." He tilted her head up. In return she placed her fingerless mittened hands on his forearms on the outside keeping his hold on her in place. Barry couldn't stop his grin from spreading, so he kept pouring out his heart. "One time I actually did. That was when I realized the faster I moved the slower the world around me became. You came into my lab demanding that I be honest with you." He let slip a small humorless laugh. "You were so still, and so mad at me for keeping things from you. I could only plead with you to forgive me and to bare with me while I worked things out. That's when I realized I could spend all the time in the world just being around you as the world slowed. I always knew it, but it was amazing to actually see it happen." 

This time Barry placed an equally soft and gentle kiss on her nose still keeping his hands framed on her face. Iris had closed her eyes as he had moved closer to her. Barry's natural instinct had been to speed up his movement again to savor the moment, but he willed himself still and isolated the speed to just the bare tips of his fingers and palms that were touching Iris's face. The vibrations were so light and so fast that Iris looked at him oddly as she opened her eyes. Barry knew she could feel the heat being generated, but was slightly confused by the sensation of the teasing light vibrations, heat, and cold winds all at the same time. 

"You are still a liar and a bad friend. You humiliated me time and time again. You came to my job to humiliate me even more. What did I ever do to you to deserve that? Tell me, so I know to never do it again? I have never felt more useless and stupid in my life! All I did was tell a mutual friend the truth. Why didnt you tell me to keep my mouth shut? Instead you punish me in public and in private? Unless you tell me what I did wrong," Iris sighed and closed her eyes again. Although what Barry was doing was soothing, she was too emotionally drained to be comforted by it. "I think," she continued as quietly as she could, "I think this should be our last conversation. I can only take so much, and I' m tired of being everyone's punching bag. If you were me how much of this would you tolerate?" 

Barry had to admit, all of her points were valid. It also hit him just how hard he had hurt her. He couldn't loose her again. He also didn't want to unload in this particular way, but it was going to have to happen. Admitting fault is hard enough, admitting why one intentionally commits those faults is much more difficult. 

He dipped his forehead to mimic his earlier kiss and closed his eyes too. The position must have garnered some attention from an older couple who passed by and gave them knowing looks and a few whispers. He nudged her with his forehead again. "The worst thing I ever told you was that I don't have any feelings for you. I said that because I was trying not to be angry and bitter for not being able to be with you. I had it in my head that it was your fault that I wasn't with you." Barry felt Iris tense up at that, but he continued without stopping. "I was lonely and vulnerable so I let Linda pick me up at bar. Yeah, I know." He smiled at how he could feel her mirth and small laughter bubble out of her. "It's just that you're so happy without me. I got angry, stupid, and jealous about it. My world shattered when I saw you with Eddie the first time. I got into the accident the day I finally threw caution to the wind to tell you how much I loved you and wanted to be with you. Everything crumbled again after I couldnt fight off what Prism did to me, and what I did to you...and Eddie," he mumbled the last part. 

"You know," Iris said looking up at him only to pull away just a bit, "that would have been a very good time to tell me what was really going on." 

Barry sighed. "I know," he sighed. Everything seemed so much clearer in hindsight. There was one thing that still was not clear. "Iris, why are you here? I told you why I wanted to met with you. You knew it was personal, but you still showed up. Why?" 

"I've wanted to know for over a year what was wrong with you, or what you were hiding. I wanted to know what I did wrong to incur your wrath." 

"Irey, no. None of this is your fault." The old nickname that no one ever used anymore made her return the light forehead touch even though she had to stand on her toes. Barry saw her squeeze her eyes shut to push back more tears. She was quiet now, uncomfortably quiet. "There's more isn't there?" 

"I saw the picture. You know, the framed one of you in the suit with Wells, Cisco, and Caitlin. When I came in for the report after Wells fled, I noticed it, and the prison. Is that where Tony died?" 

"Yeah, there's a story there. Turns out Wells manipulated him too. It turns out we were all..." he rightly decided not to finish the thought. The irony hurt too. He knew exactly how it felt to be lied to everyday by someone trusted and to have that same person disregard your intelligence and hard work. That's when it hit him. The picture she was talking about was the picture he took of the Star Labs crew and himself with the hood off in his suit. She knew. She's known for over a month. Barry nearly moaned. Deliberately omitting the truth was equatable to lying and it still hurt. Never again would he lie to Iris. Lesson learned. He wanted to kick that picture to Mars. Everything about it was false. "I'm so sorry," he whispered gently to her again. "No more lies between us. Now it's your turn. What's the other reason you're here? Where's Eddie?" 

Iris breathed in heavily and tilted her head to the side slightly to look away and bit down on her bottom lip. Barry was familiar with it. It was her guilt face. He did loosen the hold he had on her face but not very much. He readjusted so that she would look back at him. "Tell me, Irey." 

"You told me you loved me, then you ignored me. How did you think I felt?" She didn't let him respond. "I had to reevaluate my entire life while I was making the biggest move of my life. I didn't know how to respond. I didn't have a clue as to what to do. No matter what I did I was going to hurt everyone. I couldn't even yell at you for the position you put me in because you were suddenly just gone. You were always so busy there was barely any time to talk. Then before I knew it Picture News called back amd I just plowed forward. Talking to Linda about this was the first time it came out of my mouth. I haven't had anyone to talk to that would understand. Did you forget while bar hopping that you were my best friend?" 

The past tense of that phrase hurt. He didn't want to admit that she was right about this too. He had forgotten. It was a part of that very selfish extremely temporary attitude he took on all of which had been a painful embarrassing mistake. He knew he was hurting Iris, that had been the point, but now he could see where she was going with this and he felt like an even bigger ass. 

"Eddie has been working. He's been trying to chase down you and the other Metas with his task force. I didn't say anything about them being locked up indefinitely in the Pipeline. Your welcome, by the way. My editor has me chasing down similar stories. I offered to share as much information with him as I could without giving away my sources. He flipped out and went on about how I would be a hinderance and how he can do it on his own. I tried to tell him that we're both looking for the same person but he insulted me so badly I just shut up, sat down, and let him storm out. That was three weeks ago. I've been staying at Linda's since. He just realized last Monday that I haven't been there. Yesterday he came to my job and apologized in the most than simply suggested a dinner would fix everything. I confronted him about the information he and my dad have been keeping from me that was about me. He had the nerve to look offended. He's been calling and texting since almost as often as you have. He tried to set a few other things up, but I've been working late on a regular basis and I found myself not caring about being with him. Its been like that for a while. I just didn't know how to admit that. Once again, I've never been in a position like this before. To top it all off, I couldn't stop thinking about you and why I couldn't stop thinking about you." 

Barry wanted to hear Iris say this for so long, his body became as taunt as a warrior's loaded bow. He realized she wasn't finished, and he wanted to kick himself. Hr story stopped right up to when he was being an unreasonable jerk to her and he wanted to kick himself. Everything he every wanted when it came to Iris was within his grasp had he been patient enough, and he knew he had ruined it because he wanted her to feel as hurt as he did. 

"I wanted to talk to you about the emptiness I felt while I was with Eddie," Iris continued, "but you weren't there. Then when you were, you were distant and ignorant out of the blue. It had nothing to do with Linda. Fine, if you didn't have those feelings for me before. You never said anything about just barely tolerating me too. When you asked me not to write the expose on Wells and Star Labs, no, you demanded that I didn't and that I kind of lost it because I knew my father was also investigating Wells too but you and he were just as chummy as normal, but I got the disdain from you. For the first time in my life, I wasn't just angry with you Barry I was disgusted by you. All of your secrets, all of your lies, all of your hypocrisy, and all the entitled behavior. I originally came here to tell you I'm done. I would rather be alone with no father, no mother, and no lifelong beloved friend than this." 

The words tumbled out of Iris's mouth like an avalanche. First it was just a few things Barry knew was coming, she had suppressed it for too long, but the rest came out as the anger, frustration, disappointment, loneliness, and flat out betrayals were unlocked. Barry had been consumed by his own mother's memory, her smell, the red in hair, her voice he had forgotten that Iris had none of these things from her own mother. It must have been brutal for her to stand by and support him as he grieved for Nora. Hell, he didn't even know Iris's mother's name. This is what she meant by the loneliness. Iris was surrounded by people who supposedly cared about her, swore aloud that they cared, but did nothing but take away her choices, and ignore her actions, then degrade her for the information they allowed her to have. Barry knew that Joe was keeping essential information about Iris's mother from her, and it never occurred to him as to why or to help her with it. He had been a terrible friend. The first thing he needed to do was to fix this chasm between Iris and Joe. Getting Joe to realize there was something broken between he and Iris would be difficult; getting him to admit it was his fault would be nearly impossible. Iris didn't deserve to be alone in the middle of a crowd. Joe should have picked that up by now. Barry supposed he was also at fault for that too. His problems had absorbed so much of everyone's time, then he had the nerve to get selfish with Iris's time, then angry when he didn't get what he believed he deserved. 

"Will you forgive me," he asked sincerely. He still held her face tipped up. His thumbs had brushed away more the few stubborn tears that fell out without her permission. "I have taken you for granted. Because of that I have acted terribly to you, nor have I been the friend I enjoy telling you I am. It must feel that too was a lie. I hurt you over and over again, and it seems like I forget you even as a friend," he winced and added, "even in your own house." 

"It hurt so much because I realized....I," Iris stopped herself just short. To say it met putting herself out there completely. There would be no hiding, no walking back, no more denial. 

"Please, Iris," Barry pleaded. He needed to hear her say it. Just once. More than that he knew she needed to hear it come out of her own mouth. Not just that, but why.  
"I-I love you. I do. I want you too. I just didn't realize how much you really meant to me...how much you meant to me completely until the accident. When you didn't come out of your coma, my life was empty, no barren. You made me so utterly happy, I didn't know I needed someone else in my life until you were gone." There it was. The very last piece of herself that she kept to herself. Iris just wanted to turn around and run when she realized that she just gave it away to a man who admitted that he did what he could to hurt her. It was also the same man who kept her warm in this painfully icy weather and refused to let her go. She decided she's been on this roller coaster too long and she wanted off. "Barry, I can't do this." 

The anticipation then the immediate snapback was a bit much. He's waited twenty one years to hear this from Iris. He was going to cry, again, from her rejection. He looked at her, no, that wasn't a rejection. That was fear. She was terrified of him. Of course she was, he just admitted to purposely causing her continual emotional pain seconds before she told him how much she was in love with him. "Please Irey. Give me a chance. Please give me the chance the lightning took. I know I've made so many mistakes and I've taken you for granted. I want you to be happy. I know we can be happy together." 

Iris was left adrift in his arms still caught in his hold around her face. She wanted him. She wanted her Barry. She loved him. She loved him in every way possible, and yet the world kept spinning. "I want to be happy with you. I love you just please don't hurt me." 

Barry had moved his face closer to hers as she said it again. He couldn't stop grinning. He closed his eyes and felt the wind pick up again. To him it felt great since he was almost always over heating. It great to share his surplus heat with the person who always gave him the most warmth. Barry dipped his head down even further and in a slower motion since he was so close to her. He felt the tip of her nose lightly bump on his when she wobbled a little on her toes. The first time Barry touched his mouth to her it was just to test her reaction even though she was an active participant. She stayed pliant. He tentatively began to open his mouth against hers. In return Iris took her hands from resting against his forearms and softly touched the sides of his waist and let the eventual embrace come naturally to her. What little semblance of sexual discipline Barry had he was about to loose. Fate blessed him today, and Iris's touches only led to one devilish low pitched moan. 

Iris heard it and tried to hide her immediate physical reaction. All she did was tip more on her toes again. She still felt a storm of emotions and Barry being sensitive to her touch was not helping. Hr thoughts led her astray and in the distraction she open her mouth mire thanks to Barry's mouth. Later she would deny it was she who licked his bottom lip and finished the first touch of taste by taking in his bottom lip.

Barry felt Iris return back down to remain fully in her feet again. The look on her face spelled even human emotion he could think of, although that may be skewed. barry could feel the blood in his body pooling in one particular place. Now he was grateful for the wool coats, extra layers, and the public setting. Still his bug stupid grin remain right where was it was until he saw Iris's face change again. This time the single emotional was clear as daylight. Guilt. 

Barry kissed his way to her ear. "Please don't feel bad." He kisses the top of her earlobe with an open mouth and worked his way down. The trail he left made Iris closed her eyes and lean into him with each kiss. His words were breathy and gentle as well. "Lean on me." He kissed his way back to her mouth. "Trust me." He licked the corner of her mouth and she turned into him and carefully opened her mouth. He took the opportunity to touch her tongue and feel its taste against his own. He moved his mouth against hers and tried not be aggressive or too forward. Her hands moved to clutch his waist slightly harder and sucked on her tongue swallowed the taste of her her. She placed her hands back on his forearms and held on again. Barry pulled out of this kiss and saw he left behind a light trail of saliva. He leaned down again only to lick it away. 

Iris knew she should have put a stop to this right then and there, but she was nearly violently turn on. What else and where else would he dive in on her without shame or a care in the world. She inhaled his scent and tipped on her toes again to lick her way into his mouth. He let by opening his mouth again. She could feel and hear his moan and the vocal vibrations that came along with it, except those vibrations didn't stop. They become tighter and less spaced out in their wavelengths. Their deep slow sensations fell away to a taunt feeling like a bow about to release an arrow. Iris wondered if Barry was doing it on purpose or if he knew what he was giving away. She brushed away the layers at one sleeve until she found bare skin and let her finger tips brush along the small space on his wrist. The vibrations actually speed up. So, Iris thought, it was a new instinct for him. She pulled back and resisted the urge to kiss him again when he let out a small involuntary whimper. 

Barry finally let her face go and let his hands intwine into hers. "This is all I've ever wanted." 

Now that Iris could gage so much more for him by his instinctual vibrations, she knew this wasn't true but not as a lie. "All," she asked slyly. 

Barry blushed and the red nearly glowed at the tip of his ears. "I...um..." at that moment Barry's phone rang snd he knew immediately that it was the police department. "Hi Eddie," Barry said through gritted teeth. "What's up?" 

"Remember how you, hell, everyone told Joe not to go after the Mason brother, especially after we found out he was a meta. Yeah well, he did the thing. He's at the marina." 

Barry hung up. Joe was in way over head. "I have to go. Joe is after a Meta human with a grudge by himself. Do you remember Clyde Mason, this is his brother who also has weather powers. I have to go help him before he gets himself killed." 

Before she could process everything she felt his lips on her forehead again then the familiar breeze hit her and Barry was gone just a few inches in front of her stood the Flash. Those green eyes pleaded to her so many things. 

The moment was broken when a single police car, with its sirens blazing, came closer to the banks above the lake bed. As the car sped closer, Iris read the numerical ID as it went by and recognized her father's vehicle. Barry was off to follow it. Iris was somewhat comforted as the red streak blazed by her. 

The feeling was short lived. It seemed to Iris that as soon as Barry left, he father's car was randomly hit by a bolt of lightning in a clear blue sky. 

Iris couldn't tell if the Flash got to it in time or not. The car's explosion set the scene ablaze with red, yellow, and orange light along with plums of black smoke. Did the Flash make it to her father in time?


End file.
